By Chris Oddo | Monday August 31, 2015
Rafael Nadal battled past a determined Borna Coric in four sets to reach the second round.
Photo Source: Reuters
It was billed as a possible upset, and even though it had the makings of a one-sided snoozer for well over an hour, Rafael Nadal’s 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 victory over 18-year-old Borna Coric turned out to be one of the better matches of Day 1 at Flushing Meadows.
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“So great to be back in New York,” Nadal said after the match. “It Is a tournament I like a lot. Atmosphere here is just amazing. The crowd, I feel the love of the crowd and the energy of them, so I enjoy a lot playing in the Arthur Ashe Stadium, especially night sessions.”
After falling behind a surging Nadal two sets to love, Coric adeptly made some tactical alterations and started to dictate to the two-time U.S. Open champion in the third set. The timing was perfect. Just as Nadal’s grip on the wheel seemed to slip, Coric ramped up the aggression to steal a late break in the tenth game of the third set. His blasted backhand on his second break point of the set proved too much to handle for Nadal, and as the Spaniard’s reply sailed long Coric leaped into the air and punched his fist as if to say “it’s on!”
Nadal told reporters that he started to tire in the third set because he was dehydrated (both players perspired profusely in the heat and humidity throughout the affair), but he was quick to praise Coric for pushing him to the brink. “But this small loss of energy is more loss of speed during a match against a player who is a fighter,” he said. “He's a great player. He is tough, no? He took a set.”
The match continued with heightened drama for the better part of the fourth set, as the rising Croatian matched intensity with Nadal until finally yielding the critical break in the seventh game. Nadal would hold serve the rest of the way to clinch the first-round win in two hours and 47 minutes.
Nadal, who won 113 points against only 89 for Coric, had the better of the play for the majority of the match, but the determination of Coric to hang around, make adjustments and keep looking for a way to hurt Nadal nearly got him to a fifth set and certainly bodes well for his future.
Coric was the US Open junior champion two years ago, and last year he qualified for his first Grand Slam draw in New York before losing in the first round. This year, as the youngest player in the ATP’s Top-50, he showed great character in addition to talent despite falling to Nadal. Many players (and not just extremely young ones like Coric) would have hung their heads when down early to Nadal on such a big stage. Not the case with Coric.
On the other side of the net, Nadal had his moments of brilliance, mixed with some scratchy periods, but all told it was fine way to get his US Open started after missing the tournament due to injury last year. Nadal was particularly lethal moving forward against Coric. He took advantage of the Croatian’s defensive court positioning by attacking the net and mixing in some drop shots, and ended up winning 16 of his 17 net forays on the evening.
Particularly glimmering was a feathery forehand dropper that Nadal stuck from the mid-court to break and take a 2-1 lead in set two. From there he would reel off three more games consecutively to put Coric on the canvas.
But the Croatian would rise to fight again, forcing Nadal to bear down on serve in a tight fourth set. Perspiring prolifically in the 85-plus degree New York heat at 11 PM, Nadal missed only three first serves in the final set and won 20 of 24 first serve points to keep Coric from striking and possibly forcing a fifth set.
It was the type of effort that Nadal needed. But he’ll have to keep building on it if he is to avoid going a full season of majors without making a single semifinal. He’s slated to meet Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals but even before that things could get tricky with a possible match with Fabio Fognini awaiting in the third round and perhaps Milos Raonic or Feliciano Lopez in the round of 16.
For a moment at least, the buzz of New York combined with a hard-earned victory was enough to make Nadal feel his fortunes were soon about to improve. "That gives me calm," he said. "That gives me confidence. I know if I'm able to keep having [those] feelings, I don't know here, I don't know in next tournaments, but I will have the success again. I will have the feeling that I can compete against everybody with good conditions."